Country Profiles

Make Mail and Email Arrangements

Verify your Overseas Address
Contact your new post and request your new address. It may be an APO/FPO/DPO, international, or pouch address. Be sure you know package size and weight limitations and content restrictions. Share this infomration with your family members who will most likely be sending you packages from time to time. Notify your relatives of your new address.

Note this list in a small notebook or spreadsheet to facilitate change-of-address notification the next time you move. Carefully time address changes, since some go into effect sooner than others. Magazine subscriptions, for instance, often require six to eight weeks to update. Other changes will happen almost immediately. Ideally, you do not want mail arriving at post before you do unless you have made arrangements with someone to collect it.

Change of E-mail Address
Since most e-mail services do not forward messages after you have moved, it may be most helpful to obtain a permanent e-mail address well before leaving. By using one of the following options, you will not have to send out repeated e-mail address changes.

The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.

Sign-in

Do you already have an account on one of these sites? Click the logo to sign in and create your own customized State Department page. Want to learn more? Check out our FAQ!

Because JavaScript is disabled, you can only sign in by entering your OpenID URL manually: